The concept of simultaneous attack and defense in Wing Chun is excellent, as is controlling the center, the solid structure of the techniques, and basic trapping.  The emphasis on attacking the eyes, throat, and groin is also great for self defense.  But in order to pull any of it off in reality, the training needs to be realistic.  And, some modifications will make Wing Chun safer to apply.  Even still, Wing Chun was not made for the ring.

The lop sao or pull is a great trap to use before kicking your opponent in the groin (following up further if necessary of course).  And the groin kick is very effective.  But you can’t use groin kicks in the ring.  The pak sao or smack is another great trap for self defense, especially when followed by a hack in the neck or finger in the eye, neither of which are allowed in MMA.  You can follow the lop sao or pak sao with punches or palms, but against boxing style structures the “pak sao, punch” or “lop sao, punch” combinations are far less effective.

There are exceptions.  Using a pak sao to create an opening for a punch or two, possibly causing your opponent to cover or retreat, will provide the opportunity for a double lop sao (two handed pull) into knees and elbows against a cover, or a kicking follow up against a retreat.  But due to the unrealistic training in most Wing Chun schools, practitioners are only used to dealing with other Wing Chun stylists…who very often ineffectively stand in one place attempting to block, block, block as a cooperative defense.

In MMA you might see someone opening with a jab-cross combo from boxing, followed by a kick from Thai boxing, followed by a clinch entry and takedown from wrestling, followed by ground techniques from Brazilian jiu jitsu.  They take what’s useful from each style and use various parts where they’re appropriate.  Wing Chun can be used similarly.  An MMA practitioner could use a pak sao trap to increase the likelihood of landing a jab, followed by a cross, then a double lop sao into a knee, etc.  The structure of the “tan sao” can be used to stop a takedown attempt.  The “huen sao” techniques is identical to the initial motion of pummeling or swimming in the clinch.  In self defense, the simultaneous biu sao and punch works very well against most hooks, as does trapping to eye jabs, groin kicks, and throat strikes.

Wing Chun isn’t just BS, and it does have a great deal to offer.  But in order for the strengths to come out, both WC and MMA practitioners need to open their minds and forget about previous prejudices!

I don’t have any problem whatsoever with a person practicing karate, breaking boards, etc., for fun. I did it myself years ago. But please don’t claim any of this stuff will work in self defense. Showing a gun defense from long rang where you dodge a single shot and respond by punching the attacker in the ribs is downright stupid. It will get you killed.

As Bruce Lee famously said, “boards don’t hit back”. Not only do they not hit back, but they don’t move! No attacker is going to stand and do nothing, allowing you to punch them dead in the face. The fact that this guy refers to himself in the third person, has the voice of an old woman, and talks about demons doesn’t help. It’s sad that most of the comments on the above video are positive. Come on people!

EDIT: Apparently this mystery man, “Nodan”, went on a DVD sending spree in 2005…sending DVD’s to martial arts schools with no return address or info on who he was. Here are two posts on the subject if you’d like to waste a little time.

The same “defense” is done again at the 15 second mark. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that if the attacker really swung hard and followed through, the “defender” would have a really messed up hand and arm. The rest of the video is more of the same. Here’s another:



It’s hard to say which of these videos is worse…but I’ll go with the second. These guys are playing stick patty cake. They’re tapping their sticks with ZERO intent, stopping them in mid swing, putting their hands in places where they’d get nailed in reality, etc. Seriously, this is stick patty cake. The guys move into Pekiti’s “thrust on tapping” drill and also into hubud. All of it is done as if the target is in the middle of the air. Another:



This one looks a lot better on the surface, and to many people not familiar with real stick fighting, it’s impressive. The guys are moving all over the place, and going relatively fast. However, the footwork is not done with a purpose. It doesn’t help with evading, entering, etc. The “checking hand” positions will not work in reality. The only reason they work in this drill is because the practitioners are stopping their sticks in mid swing.

I should add here, there’s nothing wrong with stopping your attack in mid-swing in order to do a drill like sumbrada. The problem is when that action stops you from realizing your technique will not work otherwise. When we trained sombrada we often stopped our sticks in mid-swing also. The difference is that our checking hand position was either out of the way of the follow through, or would have stopped the swing itself. For anyone who hasn’t seen our sumbrada video, here it is again:



Notice the details. When the checking hand is used (in the case of the inside swing or #1 for example), it checks/stops at the wrist, not on the hand. Checking on the hand will not stop the swing. It will follow through and nail your hand.



I think this was the best video I found, but still not very good. In general these guys have “better” hand positions, and sometimes they’re even almost realistic. Take a look at second 2:18. This obviously will not work, and that’s the checking hand position used against the #1 swing in the majority of the video. The idea/position at second 2:23 is far better than at 2:18, but I seriously question whether the structure of that check/grab would hold up under a full power swing. The swing goes directly against the weak part of the grip.

Some people may argue they know all of the above, and the poor checking hand positions are only used in training. But why? What’s the point of training positions that will not work, when it’s just as easy to train positions that will work?!?!?!?

So why are people training sombrada this way? I have no idea. But just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean it works!

I’ve added the new video above, along with a page with more explanation here: Wing Chun Trapping.  I think the video turned out well, but may give the impression that I think trapping has less application than I actually do.  In the coming days I’ll add more techniques to the Wing Chun page along with additional applications of trapping.

The “theory” behind R.A.T is solid, and has three phases:

1. Entry/Inflict Pain
2. Pressure/Blast – to keep the pressure on
3. Terminate/Headbutts, Knees, and Elbows

The problem with the above video is that Vunak ignored the first phase.  Attacking any decent boxer after he throws a couple of jabs with a wing chun style straight blast is a great way to get knocked out.  A decent boxer will slip and hit, drop and hit, etc., etc.  If Vunak would have followed his own past advice, and kicked the opponent in the balls or finger jabed him in the eye before beginning his blast, fine.  But to go straight to the “pressure” phase without an entry that puts your opponent a step behind the curve is not a good idea…if you’re idea of pressure is a wing chun style straight blast.

Why people fail to question what they believe, very often to their own detriment, surprises me again and again. The lack of thinking in martial arts is only a microcosm of the world in general. Fairy tails are everywhere!

I’ve just added a new video on sumbrada, along with pictures and a description of how to do the drill correctly. Sumbrada, along with hubud and other pre-arranged patterns, trapping, etc., has been the subject of much controversy over the years. In 2000 I had a long argument on the old Inosanto forum, and another in 2002 on the old MMA.TV forum with Burton Richardson and Matt Thornton in which Marc Denny (Crafty Dog) also chimed in. Actually, most of the video I’ve posted above comes from a DVD I made to send Denny in 2002 after the MMA.TV discussion.

Richardson and Thornton don’t see the value in sumbrada type training. They both seem to disagree with the pre-arranged patterned drilling AND the techniques used in sumbrada. Denny on the other hand, along with most of the Dog Brothers, uses drills like sumbrada to ingrain good responses through repetition of patterns. Most people who disregard sumbrada do so because they’ve seen it done and/or learned it incorrectly. If the techniques are done right, they work. And there’s nothing better than repetition to learn to use an effective technique…as long as it’s combined with realistic, uncooperative training, and as Denny would say, “the fighter’s understanding”.